Representation in the media can make or break the fight for safe abortions. Here’s how to do it right.
ANOUSHKA RAJESH
28 Sep 2022
“Where I am from, people don’t even say the word 'abortion'," says Meenakshi Saxena, who works with the Foundation for Reproductive Health Services India. She goes on to explain how instead they use 'MTP' as a verb.
MTP refers to the celebrated Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, the law that protects abortion rights in India.
Turns out, that a large population in India is still not aware that abortion is legal.
By Adrija Bose
8 July 2022
A 25-year-old woman in Nagpur used household utensils to self-abort last year by watching a YouTube tutorial. The procedure that involves a safe place, safe tools and a trained medical practitioner was carried out by herself, in her own home when her parents were away. The woman survived but she had to spend days in the hospital, recovering from an acute infection from the procedure that could have killed her. This is not the only story of a botched abortion.
This is not the only story of a botched abortion.
Continued: https://www.boomlive.in/explainers/abortion-india-legal-watching-youtube-roe-v-wade-us-18465
‘I Paid The Price With My Womb’: Tales Of Unsafe Abortions in India
Developing countries’ contribution is 97% of all unsafe abortions. More than half of them occur in Asia.
ISHITA DAS
Published: 21 Mar 2022
Rajlaxmi* (name changed) was sitting on the pavement of her rented shanty in Neharpar, Faridabad. She looked different from the last time I saw her.
Something was amiss.
Her eyes were hollow, her pearly white smile
seemed to have fallen into an abyss, her child-like persona absent.
Continued: https://www.thequint.com/fit/unsafe-abortion-most-common-cause-of-maternal-deaths-in-india
By Pragati Parihar
November 16, 2021
In the context of restrictions brought about by COVID-19 and Texas’ six-week abortion laws, the access to safe reproductive and sexual health choices has been brought back again to global focus. Apart from the traditional beliefs and legal norms concerning abortions, the different methods of abortion have also come to be an integral part of the discussion.
Self-managed abortions, also known as abortion by pills or medical abortions, is seen as one of the most effective ways to end an unintended pregnancy, even in countries with strict abortion laws. Self-managed abortions are defined as self-sourcing of abortion pills, outside of the clinical environment. It could be done from the comfort of one’s home or anywhere else that’s convenient to the abortion seeker.
Continued: https://feminisminindia.com/2021/11/16/self-managed-abortions-covid-19-challenges/
Athira Nortajuddin
15 March 2021
Just last year when over half of humanity was confined to their homes due to COVID-19 preventive measures, Karex, a Malaysian contraceptives manufacturer predicted a global condom shortage as the pandemic shuttered factories and disrupted supply chains.
This came as Malaysia, one of the world’s top rubber producers and a major source of condoms, imposed a nationwide lockdown – known locally as the Movement Control Order (MCO). The MCO was implemented sometime in mid-March 2020 for several months.
Continued: https://theaseanpost.com/article/less-contraception-use-pandemic
A new study throws light on the availability
of prescription-based medical abortion drugs with chemists as a way to prevent
early abortion care costs among other benefits for women exercising their
choice of terminating pregnancy
Written by Jayashree Narayanan
Published: August 19, 2020
Marking 49 years of the inception of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP)
Act in 1971, a new study out on August 10, 2020 evaluated the availability of
Medical Abortion (MA) drugs in six Indian states to understand the awareness
levels and perceptions of the chemists stocking and selling MA pills.
Despite the passage of the MTP (Amendment) Bill in March 2020 that extended the
upper limit for permitting abortion to 24 weeks from 20 weeks, the
non-availability of MA drugs, which are approved for use up to nine weeks of
pregnancy in India, is seen to be “threatening” to women’s access to safe
abortion and proper reproductive healthcare.
Lack of access to contraceptives and family planning services during the COVID-19 induced lockdowns led to an alarming rise in the pregnancy rate across the nation, which in turn led to numerous abortions.
Lola Nayar
Aug 11, 2020
A sudden rise in pregnancies, with over a million ending in abortions, is feared as COVID led lockdown eases and health services resume. The fear is not baseless as ahead of the lockdown, a study in six states revealed poor availability of family planning devices and safe abortion options. Long months of lockdown, leading to enforced homebound status and intimacy sans contraceptives has not helped, states VS Chandrashekar, Chief Executive Officer, Foundation for Reproductive Health Services India (FRHS India) and Pratigya Campaign Advisory Group member.
“We are definitely expecting a baby boom in India with many not being able to access their choice of contraceptives. Across the country it is estimated that around 27 million couples were not able to access contraceptives,” says Chandrashekar.
The non-stocking of medical abortion drugs seems to be linked to overregulation by drug control authorities, said authorities.
Published: 10th August 2020
By Sumi Sukanya Dutta, Express News Service
NEW DELHI: A survey to assess the availability of the medical abortion pills in six states has shown its acute shortage in most of the states, triggering concerns of a sharp rise in unwanted pregnancies in the coming months.
The study by the Foundation for Reproductive Health Services India (FRSHI) involving 1500 chemists found that there was an overwhelming shortage of the drugs in five out of the six states surveyed with abysmal stocking in Madhya Pradesh (6.5%), Punjab (1.0%), Tamil Nadu (2.0%), Haryana (2.0%), and Delhi (34.0%).
Sophie Cousins, The Lancet
August 01, 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31679-2
Natalia Kanem, executive director of the UN Population Fund, is among experts warning about disrupted health services and a surge in gender-based violence. Sophie Cousins reports.
As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates, fears are increasing about the effect of the pandemic on women's and girls' sexual and reproductive health and their access to care. In response to COVID-19, in March, WHO issued interim guidance for maintaining essential services during an outbreak, which included advice to prioritise services related to reproductive health and make efforts to avert maternal and child mortality and morbidity.
Continued: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31679-2/fulltext
The lack of safe abortion facilities will have an impact on both health and family planning long after the coronavirus crisis is overcome, both in terms of unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions. Planning for this now is the only option
Jul 26, 2020
Lalita Panicker, Hindustan Times
The coronavirus pandemic has hit India’s health systems. As many services get affected, a key area of concern has been reproductive health. This includes safe abortions. It is vital for women’s health that these take place in a proper medical facility under the care of qualified professionals. With many public health facilities having been taken over for Covid-19, and several private health facilities being shut down as a result of a shortage of staff and the lack of supply chains for medicines, there is a real danger of women having to resort to back alley methods for abortion. The fact that contraception is not easily available and that they are unable to travel to a medical facility even if it is within reach adds to the problem.
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